The fact that the reservoir level, on average, is above 50% is good news. Very good. For starters, it guarantees a summer that won't suffer as much as the previous one in most of the country. It's been almost three years, since July 2022, since there was a similar amount of water in the reservoirs. The rains in March have made their mark. But we also know that there is a good depth of accumulated snow in the Pyrenees, which will guarantee more water when the thaw comes, and that forecasts indicate that this spring will be rainy. Yes, we can breathe a sigh of relief, but what we can't do is sleep, thinking that the problem is already solved and we've emerged unscathed.
The director of the Catalan Water Agency, Josep Lluís Armenter, explains that, with the drought, the citizens have been exemplary, and acknowledges that in recent weeks the situation has improved, but he also has a plan to prepare the country for the future. We know that generous rainfall and reservoirs filled with water—we can't say that most are full either—will increasingly become the exception. And episodes of drought, on the other hand, will become more frequent. The climate crisis is pushing us toward this situation. That's why we can't afford to take water for granted. The government has an obligation to plan for and anticipate future episodes of water shortages.
It must be acknowledged that after the 2008 drought, much work was done to prepare Catalonia for a situation of scarcity. Without this work, we would have fared much worse in recent years. Who would have imagined, not so many years ago, that we would once again be drinking water from the Besòs River? But the current drought has shown us that it wasn't enough. We must prepare for the worst, which may be beyond what we can foresee.
Preparing for the worst means rethinking all water infrastructure, obviously, and planning and implementing the necessary infrastructure to ensure water in a world where it will be an excuse for wars. But it also means finding more efficient ways to use and distribute it, to make rational use of it. We must bear in mind that perhaps we are not the right country for events, activities, or infrastructure that only make sense when access to abundant water reserves is taken for granted. Preparing, of course, also means curbing the waste through leaks, which still exists. And getting used to—as we have already done, in fact—reclaimed water, and reviewing, if necessary, the entire network of concessions and infrastructure related to the entire water cycle.
We still have a lot of work to do. And while it's true that the primary responsibility for preparing lies with the Catalan and Spanish governments and local administrations, the economic fabric and citizens also have our share of work to do. For now, we are doing so, but we must continue in this way. Let the recent rains not make us lose sight of the uncertainty of recent years, because it should serve as a lesson.
